[Lydy accidentally emailed her reply to only me, but confirmed to me in e-mail that it was intended for the list. I haven't snipped anything out of her post.] Lydia Nickerson <lydy at demesne.com> wrote on Sat, 20 Jul 2002 11:32:13 > TKY wrote: > >"Ian sympatico" <ijamie at sympatico.ca> writes: > > > > > > If anyone has not read Zelazny yet I don't know why they are on > > > this list! > > > >? Surely there are at least a few people here who haven't read any > >Zelazny. Right? > > > >Also, I like both Steve's and Zelazny's books, but in general, they > >don't feel that similar to me. I suspect I'm in the minority; anyone > >else in there with me? > > _To Reign in Hell_ is, I believe, a deliberate Zelazny pastiche. It's > certainly wonderful in its own way, and very like Zelazny. There are > things about the world building in Dragaera that remind me of Zelazny, even > though the stories and writing don't. Paarfi and Zelazny are in many ways > worlds apart. TRiH does remind somewhat of Zelazny. > >I've read only _Cryptonomicon_ (no 'r' at the end), which I liked a > >lot. (I couldn't tell if Inner and Outer Q<mumble> were real or not. > >I had to do a little Googling to find out.) I hear that he doesn't do > >endings ([well] / [at all], take your pick), but Crypto's was ok by > >me. > > So, does this mean you can explain the ending to me? I utterly adore the > book, its shifts in time, its layered construction, its characters and > plot, but I'm damned if I can figure out what they're going to do at the > ending. Heh. I'm not sure what they're going to do, but I liked the way the various threads had converged by that point, and it was clear he was setting things up for a sequel. Did you catch the hints that there is a clear-cut SF element? Bill Snyder pointed this out on RASFW, and I'm afraid to say at first I thought it was all bullshit, but upon closer inspection, he's right that there's very good evidence that there is, um, let's call it a "Harry Potter connection". For spoiler details, see http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=F4635C5415B8DF0E.342CB2078C8B6B1E.4E9DA9C7BE55CBE2%40lp.airnews.net (You may need to reform that URL into one line -- *wow* that's a big Message-ID!) > _Cryptonomicon_ is the best worked up of his novels, in my opinion. I am > also very fond of _Snow Crash_, but it's an 80s sort of thing, cyberpunk on > speed. I didn't much like _Diamond Age_. I should read it again, since I > can't articulate why I didn't like it I probably wasn't paying enough > attention the first time through. It's structure is weird and limp, > though. Maybe that's why... - tky